The Republican-controlled Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday (Feb. 5) approved the nomination of EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler to lead the agency full time.

The committee voted 11-10 on party lines to send the nomination to the Senate floor after Republicans rebuffed requests by Democrats to delay the vote.

Wheeler, who was confirmed by the Senate as EPA deputy administrator in April 2018, has been serving as acting administrator since Scott Pruitt resigned in July amid an array of ethics investigations and allegations that he misused taxpayer funds. President Donald Trump last month nominated Wheeler to officially take the post

Wheeler's eventual confirmation appears likely but Democrats signaled their intent to block a floor vote until the nominee has addressed controversies surround several air quality rules and public health policies.

"You'll have the votes to get him confirmed in the Senate, I think," Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., told his Republican colleagues. "But I want to be sure that if that happens or when that happens, the five issues we are raising here today have been addressed in an appropriate way."

The issues cited by Carper are the Trump administration's moves to stall increases in fuel efficiency standards and to relax regulations that reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. The Democrats also are upset with EPA's lack of progress on phasing out hydro-fluorocarbons and on a ban on the use of methyl chloride in paint strippers, as well as Wheeler's reluctance to commit to setting a drinking water standard for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).

USTR Reports Signal China, Russia Still Not Living Up To WTO Commitments

China continues to deploy policies that essentially have stalled the shift to a more market-based economy, something it pledged to do when it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Meanwhile, Russia's actions to adjust its policies have been tempered by protectionist actions, according to a pair of reports by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

USTR said the Chinese market remains "difficult and unpredictable" in no small part because of "inconsistent enforcement of regulations and selective intervention in the market by China's regulatory authorities. The failure of China's regulators to routinely follow science-based, international standards and guidelines further complicates and impedes agricultural trade."

The U.S. has pursued a case at the WTO against China's domestic agriculture supports for rice, wheat and corn, a case launched by the Obama administration and pursued by the Trump administration.

Another U.S. challenge at the WTO is on the way China has implemented tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for imports of various ag products. "China's TRQs for rice, wheat and corn do not fill each year," USTR stated. The WTO panel examining this U.S. challenge is expected to release a decision in mid-2019.

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Meanwhile, Russia joined the WTO in 2012 and U.S. exports to the country expanded through 2014 but fell after Russia invaded Crimea and the U.S. and others imposed sanctions on Russia. That saw Russia enact barriers to trade that have resulted in trade flows mostly falling, USTR said in their report to lawmakers.

Russia has continued to implement its commitments, particularly committing to the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement (SPS) when it comes to imports of various ag goods, indicating that science would drive the decision-making process.

"Although Russia has put in place the legal framework to allow it to comply with its WTO commitments, its implementation of these commitments remains problematic," USTR stated. Specifically, the U.S. report said Russia does not appear to have put international standards in place or opted to put a more-stringent standard in place.

Washington Insider Bud Light's New Fight With Corn Syrup

In what most observers saw as a tight defensive Super Bowl game, a somewhat surprising ag issue surfaced: That Bud Light advertisement which went after corn syrup.

As the New York Times reported, "Bud Light sought to portray corn syrup as a nutritional boogeyman in its Super Bowl ad."

The ad quickly made something of an enemy of the corn industry. The beer maker boasted that, "unlike its fiercest competitors, it does not brew its beer with corn syrup."

Corn advocates responded angrily and competing brands fought back.

"The bottom line is that the claims regarding corn syrup in brewing are more marketing than science," David Ludwig, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health told the Times.

Beer is made by fermenting sugar. During the fermentation process, yeast converts the sugar into alcohol. "Corn syrup is a form of sugar that's been produced from a grain," Dr. Ludwig said. "Whether that sugar is produced by first milling and then enzymatically treating the grain, or doing so from corn in a separate process, isn't going to matter much to the final nutritional quality."

To be clear, Bud Light is not brewed with corn syrup and Miller Lite and Coors Light are, the Times said.

In response to the ad, Kevin Ross, a vice president of the National Corn Growers Association, shared a video of himself pouring what appeared to be Bud Light down the drain. "Bud Light, if you're not standing with corn farmers, we're not standing with you," he said.

The corn advocate group, which claims some 40,000 dues-paying farmer members among an industry of 300,000, said in a tweet that "America's corn farmers are disappointed in you." The tweet was shared thousands of times.

The Times also says that if you're concerned about the nutritional value of your beer — and none of it is particularly healthy -- "there's no need to focus on the sugars used during fermentation. You can just look at the label: The main considerations are the alcohol content and the final carbohydrate content."

Sugary beverages and too many processed carbohydrates are a "major problem with the food supply," Dr. Ludwig said. They promote weight gain while also increasing the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The Times called high-fructose corn syrup a commonly used sweeter-variant that has often been linked to obesity -- but health professionals tend to suggest that there is little evidence HFCS is less healthy than other sweeteners.

The Times said that while Bud Light sought to portray corn syrup as a nutritional boogeyman, several beverages produced by its parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, use corn syrup, including Bud Ice, Natural Ice and Rolling Rock, according to the company's nutritional data.

MillerCoors, which makes Miller Lite and Coors Light, volleyed back on Twitter, shifting the focus from corn syrup to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It wrote that it was "proud that none of our products include any high fructose corn syrup, while a number of Anheuser-Busch products do."

The back-and-forth spat may not have been the best result for Bud Light, said Wendy Clark, chief executive of the advertising agency DDB Worldwide. "I don't know if anyone watching the Super Bowl necessarily cares about corn syrup, and it kicked up much ado about nothing," Ms. Clark said.

"It's taken off into this corn syrup thing and not a Bud Light thing," she added, "and I don't know if that was the goal."

Anheuser Busch told the Times it "fully supports corn growers and will continue to invest in the corn industry. Bud Light's Super Bowl commercials are only meant to point out a key difference in Bud Light from some other light beers," it continued. "This effort is to provide consumers transparency and elevate the beer category."

The corn industry has pushed back against studies suggesting HFCS is more harmful than sugar, spending tens of millions of dollars in lobbying to influence public opinion. In addition, the U.S. FDA says it is "not aware of any evidence" that there's a health difference between high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners like sucrose or honey. A Harvard publication and the American Heart Association came to similar conclusions.

"If you're concerned about your health, the smart play is to cut back on added sugar, regardless of the type," according to the Mayo Clinic.

How long the fight continues will be interesting. Given past negative attention to HFCS this is not exactly a new fight, but it is especially unwelcome in the current weak ag markets. Also, debates over nutritional characteristics of ag foods are often bitter, contentious and sometimes damaging. So while the social media battle may be entertaining, longer-term results should be watched closely by producers, Washington Insider believes.

Want to keep up with events in Washington and elsewhere throughout the day? See DTN Top Stories, our frequently updated summary of news developments of interest to producers. You can find DTN Top Stories in DTN Ag News, which is on the Main Menu on classic DTN products and on the News and Analysis Menu of DTN's Professional and Producer products. DTN Top Stories is also on the home page and news home page of online.dtn.com. Subscribers of MyDTN.com should check out the US Ag Policy, US Farm Bill and DTN Ag News sections on their News Homepage.

If you have questions for DTN Washington Insider, please email edit@dtn.com

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